


After all

by Ricksbowlegs



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Because they love each other but they're not together, Daryl loves Rick, Gaslighting, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, M/M, Negan is a dick, Protective Daryl, Rick loves Daryl but doesn't know, Rickyl, Smut, sort of happy ending?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-09
Updated: 2016-04-09
Packaged: 2018-06-01 03:19:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6498754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ricksbowlegs/pseuds/Ricksbowlegs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rick comes to Daryl for help one night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After all

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know what this is but hope you enjoy.
> 
> Unbetad. My mistakes. I apologize in advance.
> 
> Not my characters.

It was almost three thirty in the morning when Rick knocked on his door. He knew it couldn’t be anything good so he hurried to unlock it and let the man in. 

As soon as Daryl opened the door, Rick leaned his body heavily against him; his cold, wet nose briefly brushed across his cheek as he did so. 

That familiar feeling of dread, ever present in situations’ involving Rick and his partner settled in Daryl’s stomach. He could only wonder what that bastard had done to him now.

Rick was shivering from head to toe so Daryl wrapped an arm around him and stepped back to pull him along and inside the house, closing the door behind him. 

“Hey,” he whispered, gently pushing the younger man away to have a better look at him. 

Rick didn’t look good. He was extremely pale and wouldn’t stop shaking, either from fear or cold, or both. That and the big bruise on his left temple. 

“What did that fucker do t’ya now?” Daryl asked in a sullen tone. His throat constricted and tears threatened to form in his eyes. He would never handle well Rick getting hurt.

“Nothin’,” Rick replied weakly, lifting his hand to the left side of his face; a futile attempt at covering the bruise. “t’was just a stupid thing…”

“Don’ bullshit me, Rick,” Daryl sighed, “ya know it don’ work with me.”

Rick looked down in shame and took a shuddering breath before speaking. “I just―I was tired. I was really tired,” he vaguely explained. “But he didn’t want to go to sleep just yet…”

Daryl’s throat constricted and a heavy feeling settled in his chest; his stomach twisting at the possibility of Negan hurting Rick in _that_ way. He would kill that fucker if it was so.

“He forced ya?” he strained out after swallowing thickly.

Rick shook his head and some of the tension lifted from Daryl’s chest. But there was still the bruise to explain. 

“He got mad, though. Told me I was a good for nothing…then kicked me out.”

“At 3 am?” Daryl huffed in anger.

Rick shook his head again slowly. It was so embarrassing having to explain how your partner had just decided to kick out of the house for not wanting sex, even to Daryl who he knew would never judge him. 

“I waited a while. Thought he’d change his mind.”

Something broke inside him at hearing his own words. 

“And ya walked all the way here?” Daryl asked, dreading the answer. “Without a jacket?”

Silence.

“Christ, Rick,” Daryl huffed, rubbing his face with both hands. This could no longer go on. He couldn’t continue to allow it; seeing the man he loved in such condition, being slowly destroyed by that monster who claimed to love him. Rick had to do something. “n’ that bruise?” he grunted.

“He pushed me…I tripped,” Rick explained with downcast eyes.

Daryl took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, counting to ten in his head; hands itching to punch something...someone. 

_Fucker._

“Kay, whatever that fucker did, we’ll talk ‘bout it later. Now we need ya out of these wet clothes. C’mere,” he said, nodding his head toward the bedroom. 

Rick nodded and followed in silence where Daryl told him to strip off his wet clothes and lend him dry ones before leaving him to his privacy. They hung a bit lose on him but they were warm and smelled of Daryl; of comfort and safety.

Daryl made them tea and brought them to the living room where he’d left Rick sitting on the couch, wrapped in a warm blanket.

“Rick,” Daryl said, drawing his attention from the mug of tea. “This can’t go on.”

Of course it couldn’t. But what could he do? The sole idea of leaving Negan terrified him.

“It’s gotten worse,” Daryl continued, “n’ ya need t’ do somethin’ ‘bout it… Or I’m gonna.”

He nodded in silence and looked back at his cup of tea. “Thank you…for everything, Daryl.”

“s’ what am here fer.”

Daryl made Rick lie on his bed and when he attempted to go sleep on the couch the younger man stopped him, claiming he didn’t want to be alone. He happily complied and lay beside his friend. 

“Everythin’s gonna be okay, Rick,” Daryl soothed as he tried not to cry, caressing his messy curls with loving care. “m’ here fer ya no matter what. Whenever ya need me… this is yer home.”

Rick smiled sadly and held Daryl’s hand as they fell asleep, curled up against one another.

When Daryl woke up the next morning, Rick was gone. He’d figured. The clothes he’d lend him were neatly folded at the foot of the bed and there was a little note on top of them. 

_Thank you._

Daryl grunted, crumpled the note into a ball and threw it in the garbage.

It pained him having to see Rick destroying his life, standing there like a helpless spectator. 

Things weren’t going to change. For much he loved Rick; for much he dreamed of the moment Rick would realize it should be him by his side instead of that manipulative asshole, there was nothing he could do. 

Rick loved Negan. 

 

……………………………

 

He took a deep, encouraging breath before knocking on the door. There was no answer, but when he turned the doorknob, the door opened.

“Good morning,” Negan greeted as he stood up from his couch and came to meet him by the door. He was in a rather cheerful mood so Rick let out a sigh of relief.

Negan hugged him tightly, pulling him against his bigger frame and holding him there for a few minutes before parting to put both his big hands on each side of Rick’s head, keeping him still as he studied him closely; eyes flicking to the bruise on his temple. 

“You gotta be more careful next time, darling.”

Rick frowned at those words. _He_ should be more careful? 

He met those dark eyes for a moment as they gazed back at him intently. Rick dropped his gaze when he couldn’t hold it any longer. 

Yeah, he probably should be more careful. Yes, he definitely should be more careful. It wasn’t even a hard shove.

Rick nodded tightly and Negan flashed him a toothy smile. “Because we don’t want you to hurt yourself, do we?”

“R―Right,” he stuttered. The knot in his stomach grew tighter.

“So how about we make lunch? What would you want to eat?” The older man said, casually changing the subject.

He hesitated and shrugged. “I―anything you want.” They always had what Negan wanted. Why even ask?

“Great.”

Rick stood in the middle of the living room for long minutes, unmoving as he studied the floor where the glass Negan had thrown against the wall a few nights back, merely centimeters away from his head, had shattered into million pieces. Rick had swept most of them but the stain on the wall was still there and it reeked of whiskey. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw one of the shreds of glass under the coffee table and bent over to pick it up, studying it closely while rolling it between his fingers. When strong arms wrapped around his middle from behind and Negan’s hard body pressed itself against him, Rick closed his fist around the shred tightly. Drops of blood trickled down onto the floor.

“How about turkey leftovers sandwiches?” Negan whispered against his ear then pressed a kiss on his bruised temple. Rick didn’t even flinch at the pain it caused and nodded absentmindedly, shivering involuntarily when the older man started kissing his neck.

“Good. Go on, then,” Negan said, patting him on the butt as he unwrapped himself from Rick’s tense form. “After lunch we can continue what we started last night.”

Rick nodded, offering a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Yeah, I want to.”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Negan said dryly and after a tense pause, he smiled.

After lunch, they tumbled into the bedroom while hungrily kissing each other. Negan pushed Rick on the bed and climbed on top of him, making quick work of taking Rick’s clothes off, keeping his own on, merely opening his fly to pull out his impressive hard shaft. 

It always hurt, that first thrust, when his walls were impossibly stretched around that thick rod of flesh, but Negan knew exactly were to aim and soon, he had Rick moaning wantonly on the bed as he rammed into him with hard, deep thrusts. 

He had no idea why, and he couldn’t stop it, but for a long while, Rick had started to think about Daryl when Negan was buried deep inside him. It made him feel better and he enjoyed it more. But Negan could never find out so he bit his lips to prevent his mouth from uttering his best friend’s name as he came. But, oh how he wanted to scream it.

Daryl couldn’t know either. Even if the idea of being with him was more than appealing, and he knew Daryl would receive him with open arms, Rick was just too afraid of leaving Negan.

And there was that part of him that still loved the older man. 

Negan came soon after, spilling his warm seed inside him and keeping his softening cock buried inside Rick for a long while after. Rick kept his eyes closed and smiled in contentment, letting himself be wrapped in the man’s strong embrace.

“Look at you,” Negan cooed as he caressed Rick’s sweaty curls, much like Daryl had done the night before, and carefully studied his face. “How did you get so beautiful?”

Rick smiled bashfully and cracked his eyes open. This was the Negan he loved. The one he’d fallen in love with all those years ago. It always got better after a rough night like last night so he smiled and let himself enjoy the moment.

“You’re exaggerating.”

“You know I’m not,” Negan said and leaned closer to kiss Rick’s full lips then parted with a big smile. “You’re my most precious possession.”

Rick’s smile faltered a bit at the words and he started to struggle weakly in Negan’s embrace. The bigger man slid off from on top of him to lie on his side; his cock slipping out of Rick’s hole in the process with a wet sound. He could feel the warm fluid dripping out of him.

“Where’re you going? I’m not done with you,” Negan said, firmly grabbing Rick’s wrist when he attempted to sit up. His stomach twisted in fear.

“Bathroom. Be right back,” he informed tightly and slid out of bed when the firm hold around his wrist loosened.

He limped his way into the bathroom and closed the door behind him, staring at his reflection in the mirror with squinted eyes and cringing at the dark bruise on his temple. 

Who was he trying to kid? Things weren’t going to get better than this. Not if he stayed with Negan. It’d only get worse, like Daryl kept telling him. 

It already had.

That night, Rick gathered everything he could fit in two bags and left the house in silence. He hesitated before driving to Daryl’s house, hating the idea of disturbing him two nights in a row, but Daryl had told him over and over again: Whenever he needed to, he could count on him. 

Shaking his doubts, he started engine and drove to his destination with a smile on his face. 

Maybe things could get better after all.


End file.
